The first time Braun Strowman felt fear in his life was when he met Bray Wyatt.
He saw a snake bite him in the face and Bray never
flinched. Instead, he laughed as the snake bit him over and over. It was
at that moment he realized Bray Wyatt was the devil himself.
He has worked hard to keep the sinister side of him at
bay, but even he admitted that he kind of liked it. Because his sinister side is calling him back, he called Bray out for a match in the eerie,
miserable, absolute hell that they both used to call home.
Either he’ll come out of it the most evil son of a bitch
the world has ever seen, or he’ll come out with the satisfaction that he
spit in the devil’s face and dragged him into the swamp to let the
alligators finish him. Bray’s laughter filled the OPC and Strowman
laughed back as he stared into the camera.
Promos are not Braun’s forte. I’ve talked about this ad
nauseum. However, I was actually a fan of this whole segment. Letting
Braun be serious, and borderline sinister, with his deep voice and his
emotionless stare into the camera, probably made this one of his best
promos to date.
So, House of Horrors 2? The Randy Orton match a few years
ago was really fun and I would not mind another visit to the swamp. I
would prefer it not be for the title, and I’d assume that it isn’t since
the story here is Bray reverting back to his old gimmick to bring his
monster home.
Thank You, Taker
A chunk of the show was dedicated to the Undertaker and
him saying in The Last Ride documentary that he’s finished wrestling.
They replayed the Boneyard match from WrestleMania 36 with commercials,
so it wasn’t as fun to watch. Also it reminded me of Anderson and
Gallows not being around anymore. There were some interviews talking
about what Taker meant to legends like Ric Flair and Kane, Christian and
John Cena, and they showed his debut from Survivor Series 1990.
The Undertaker was one of my favorite characters many
moons ago during the Attitude Era and I’ll always have fond memories
trying to roll my eyes back with my friends and watching his run with
the Corporate Ministry. Fast forward to 2014 and I stood up in absolute
shock when the streak was over. That moment will forever be stored in my
memory file cabinet and ever since, he had ups and downs as documented
in The Last Ride. It’s a fantastic documentary I would recommend to
anyone.
Thank you Undertaker for many years of fond memories and
being one of the very best locker room leaders in wrestling. You will be
missed, if indeed you are done.
The Rest
Lucha House Party and New Day def. Miz and Morrison and The Artists -
They had Kofi play babyface in peril again here, and he really excels
at that role. Metalik with the springboard hurricanrana is *chef’s
kiss*. I keep saying that Morrison works best with the luchadors. He’ll
be amazing in singles competition with them. New Day and The Artists
brawled up the ramp, and Metalik hit an elbow drop to get the win on
Miz.
Jeff Hardy def. Baron Corbin - Baron
Corbin let us all know that Undertaker is a bag of bones and spent a
majority of his time in WWE in the kiss my ass club. He also said that
Taker is a selfish son of a bitch and who holds, quote, “superior
athletes like me down” and that Mark Calaway sucks. So Jeff Hardy
attacked Corbin from behind and later said he’d fight for Undertaker in
his honor, having graduated from Dead Man University. Yeah… I don’t get
that part either.
Jeff tried for a whisper in the wind but didn’t connect,
Corbin mocked Undertaker a bunch, a Deep Six almost won it for Corbin
and I thought it was over, but Jeff won with the Swanton Bomb. K cool.
People hit their finishers on Corbin after and this
served no purpose whatsoever. Corbin will continue to be booked strong
in his next feud and will still act like a dumbass and it will still
suck.
Nikki Cross def. Alexa Bliss, Lacey Evans, and Dana Brooke
- We needed an opponent for Bayley Dos Straps, and I didn’t mind this
being how we got it. One issue though - I have no idea why, after just
having Nikki Cross give an impassioned speech about Alexa Bliss, they
would put the team in a match against each other. And then have Nikki
try to pin Alexa for the win? Dana and Lacey were fine here, and Nikki
won with a folding press. (Thanks Claire!)
I’m very happy to see Nikki getting a title shot against
Bayley, as I have consistently enjoyed the interactions and matches
between The SmackDown Best Friends and Bliss Cross Applesauce.
SmackDown was very different to how it was supposed to be
since all of the COVID-19 tests came back positive. It’s irresponsible of WWE to not have been testing regularly. The state of Florida is seeing a large surge in cases for the past week and if wrestling should
continue, it must continue safely. That goes for both WWE and AEW. For
the first time tonight, most audience members were wearing masks. That
should have always been the case.
This was a hard show to grade since half of it was a
replay of a match and interviews. The other half had some decent
wrestling and stuff I did not care about at all. I’m eager to see Bray’s
response to Braun the most. I am not eager to see what’s next for
Corbin. Ugh.
Grade: C+
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